.Political Tidbits is the prestigious column of Belinda Olivares-Cunanan that ran for 25 continuous years in the op-ed page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the newspaper that she helped put up with its multi-awarded founder, the legendary Eugenia Duran-Apostol, in December 1985, just two months before the EDSA Revolution.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Was Secretary Ona let go because Usec Janet Garin, former staunch RH advocate in the House, would be more determined to push the RH Law into full implementation? 2015 Budget passed by House vote of 172 vs. 18, without a single cut and with "re-defination" of "savings, plus three-volumes "Errata" as high as several rulers. INC makes its feelings known to solons: leave Judiciary budget alone.

Secretary (on leave) Enrique T. Ona of DOH

Many speculations are
swirling about the President’s move to make Health Secretary Enrique “Ike” Ona go
“on leave” from his post and appoint Undersecretary Janet Garin as “acting
Secretary.” These stories get “curiouser” by the day.

One story quoted
Usec Garin and DOH sources as saying that Ona went on leave as he
suffers from complications of an allergy to hair dye, while another report quoted
P-Noy as saying he asked Ona to go on a month-long leave to enable him
to explain the vaccination issue, and that his return to DOH’s helm would be
dependent "on what his report would contain." The undisguised implication is that
there’s some anomaly about the vaccines.

But if that's the case, other
secretaries and heads of offices in this administration ought to have gone on
leave much earlier as they have been in the thick of corruption issues, e.g.,
DBM Secretary Butch Abad, Agriculture Secretary Prospero Alcala, DSWD Secretary
Dinky Soliman, PNP Chief Alan Purisima, etc.

That vaccination report does not
wash, for to this day not one of the Aquino officials has resigned.

XXX

Another story says that P-Noy
was irked that Ona kept pestering him to increase by P500 million the budget of
the Tropical Medicine Research Center---a last minute budget entry meant to
tackle head-on the Ebola threat. But this doesn’t wash either, for the 3 huge volumes
of “Errata” on the 2015 General Appropriations Bill, submitted by the DBM to the
House of Representatives the very day of its voting on this bill, contained so many pahabol from
various agencies of government---and yet DBM included them all.

If this report
is true that Ona wanted a pahabol for the research center, it’s perfectly
understandable as the dreaded Ebola only burst upon the world in the past two
months. Why should P-Noy get peeved when he should be thankful that his top health official is being militant about the possible pandemic.

XXX

Speculation is hardening that
Secretary Ona won’t be returning to DOH and Garin will take over; House
insiders noted that she already did act like the boss during hearings on the
DOH budget. So what’s the real story
behind Ona’s replacement by Garin?

The political angle is being
raised by political pundits. Prior to her appointment to DOH, Garin was a
three-term representative of Iloilo, and closely related to the powerful
Petilla clan of Leyte that includes Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla. Hence, pundits are now tying her post as eventual DOH Secretary to the coming
elections, where the DOH with its direct access to the grassroots and its
P102.178 billion budget, could play a critical role in the 2016 elections that
P-Noy and the Liberal Party want so badly to win, if he and top allies are to
escape possible prosecution for violations in DAP.

XXX

There’s another angle,
though, that pundits have failed to explore. Garin was, next to former Albay
Rep. Edcel Lagman, the most assiduous and passionate supporter of the RH bill pending in Congress over the years. Both chambers voted
overwhelmingly for the bill in December 2012, even though the subsequent SC ruling on the RH law
displayed aspects that both anti and pro-RH claim as partial victory for them.

But now, it’s possible that the Obama administration, certain UN agencies and giant foreign pharmaceutical companies are now applying tremendous pressure on the P-Noy
administration---which went all out for the RH bill to the point of Cabinet
members camping out in the House lounge during votings---to implement what has been ruled by SC
as implementable. Thus, it’s quite possible that while Secretary Ona religiously attended the SC hearings on the RH bill, he might not have been as fanatical as Usec Garin
in supporting its full implementation. Many view Ona as a professional, not
a P-Noy ideologue.

XXX

Now, when one considers that
Director-General Kenneth Hartigan-Go of the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), the office that will directly scrutinize the contraceptives that will
flood the market, has quietly resigned effective Oct. 1, then the rise of Usec
Garin to the DOH’s helm becomes no idle speculation.

Moreover, it’s significant
that the FDA has asked in recent weeks some 10 pharmaceutical companies to
submit for re-evaluation some 50 brands of contraceptives they manufacture---in
accordance with the spirit of the SC’s ruling, doubtless to protect women
consumers. The speculation as to why Dr. Hartigan-Go, who is a highly-respected
professional, resigned thickens. Did he anticipate tough problems ahead with
the implementation of the RH law?

XXX

The General Appropriations Bill
of 2015, amounting to P2.606 trilion, was overwhelmingly approved by the House a
few days ago with just 18 out of the 290 members opposing it---seven from the “Makabayan
Bloc” of left-wing militants that included Carlos Isagani Zarate and Senior
Deputy Minority Leader Neri Colmenares, Jonathan de la Cruz of Abakada party-list,
Antonio Tinio of Alliance of Concerned Teachers, and Rep. Joselito Atienza of
Buhay, and nine district representatives, among them Toby Tiangco of Navotas,
Lino Cayetano of Taguig and Jose Tejada of North Cotabato. The tiny minority put
up a heroic fight vs. the 2015 Budget but to no avail.

The 272 other House members caved in and passed it WITHOUT A SINGLE CUT. Moreover, the extra three huge volumes of the 2015 Budget, titled “Errata,” from DBM---the first such monstrosity from any administration
ever---was delivered to the House the same day as the voting, thus the representatives passed them without even taking a look at the "Errata."

XXX

The P2.606 trillion 2015
Budget is already on second reading in the Senate and predictably both versions
would be reconciled in a jiffy, so that P-Noy should have it in his pocket by
the time Congress goes into Christmas break on Dec. 15. Passage of this budget by
both chambers indicates a couple of things: Aquino’s near-total
control of Congress and the solons’ fear of being isolated from manna from
heaven in an election year.

Many other things are
upsetting about it, such as that it contains “presidential pork” in
the form of a lump-sum appropriation that former National Treasurer Leonor
Briones estimates could come up to possibly half of the P2.606T budget.
Unprogrammed fund for the President alone comes up to P477 billion, which means he could spend it any which way he chooses---unlike programmed and line-item ones which have to go where they are appropriated, or one could get into trouble with COA. Lump-sum appropriations are a resurrection of the DAP that was struck down by the SC.

Another
objectionable fact was the redefinition by admin-controlled solons of “savings”
in the executive branch, which could come from “unobligated” or “unfilled”
positions or from projects that have been dropped, and all of which could be
collected AS EARLY AS EVERY QUARTER---in direct defiance of the SC’s position in
its July 1, 2014 ruling on DAP, that savings may be collected at year-end only.
Recall that one controversial move of
the administration was the early impounding of “savings” worth P10 billion,
that should have gone into P10,000 incentive bonuses for each of the over
70,000 public school teachers across the country.

The 2015 budget deserves the opprobrium of being an “election budget.”

XXX

One item, though, that remained
virtually untouched in the 2015 budget was the funding for the judiciary, the
third branch of government. During the deliberations on the judiciary’s budget,
the SC was represented by Justices Bienvenido Reyes (who was the second
appointee of P-Noy in the High Court) and Diosdado Peralta, and the Deputy
Court Administrator. Among the solons who shepherded the judiciary’s budget
were neophyte Terry Ridon and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez.

But what truly helped
protect that fund was the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) which sent an unequivocal
message to leave that budget, especially the Judicial Development Fund (JDF) that
goes into manpower development down the line in the judiciary, ALONE. Among the
INC people who maintained a high profile in those hearings was colorful lawyer
Ferdinand Topacio, unmistakable with his INC pin.

The JDF, created by the
Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980 and reinforced by the Judiciary Act, was
the object of power-lusting by some solons, encouraged by ill-disguised threats by President Aquino (who was quoted as saying that he only wants to
stay in power longer in order to clip the SC’s powers), but the INC made its
stand known. The locally elected representatives let that budget be.

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About Bel Cunanan

Belinda Olivares-Cunanan is a veteran journalist with 25 years of experience writing a political column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. She is a Rotary Club of Manila Hall of Fame awardee for journalism. She has also received the Distinguished Alumna Award from her elementary and high school alma mater, the College of the Holy Spirit, and the Alumni Association Professional Award for Journalism from the University of the Philippines (UP).